Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque

After our time in Dubai we flew to Muscat, Oman.  Our first excursion was to visit the Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque.

All of these pictures feature Erica.  David and Clara were also there, but Clara had a bit of a 'moment', so David took her for a walk while Erica and I explored.  David was able to have a look in the prayer hall later.  Ethan was back at the hotel, not wanting to use his crutches around the large grounds.

The above two pictures are from inside the prayer hall.  All of the mosques we visited had an area like this in the prayer hall.  It's called the mihrab.  It faces towards mecca and is also an acoustic device.  The speaker would face this wall (with their back to the people).  The shape in the wall would help to project the sound.  Now there are microphones.

This picture is taken from the pool at our hotel.  You can see the Grand Mosque in the distance.  If you look to the left of the Grand Mosque you can see another important landmark.

Completely unrelated, but we found this in the supermarket that was in the basement of our hotel!  A sight for sore Australian expat eyes.  We discovered the ginger beer on the first day and continually replenished our supplies until alas we had to return home.